A Beast Reservation Field Trip Gone Wrong
by Professor Cheesecake
Summary: Robyn and Ethan are best friends attending Hildegarde,the North American equivalent to Hogwarts. After going on a field trip to a beast reservation, they unfortunately of course  get lost.  On Hiatus, Possibly Discontinued
1. What's a Sherlock?

Ethan-Chapter One

"Okay, get this Robyn: "Muggles use a thing called 'vacuum' cleaner' to clean their house!" I exclaimed.  
"No duh, Sherlock." Robyn grumbled.  
"What's a Sherlock?" I asked curiously.  
"Nevermind."  
I sighed, closing _Home Life and Social Habits of Muggles_. Normally, Robyn would've given me a hilarious explanation of what a 'Sherlock' is, like she did with 'dishwasher', 'microwave,' and 'electricity'. But she was occupied. Cleaning her dog's poo.

"You could help, you know," Robyn injected, unsuccessfully trying to roll the turd onto her pooper scooper. "(Muggles give appliances such odd names!)  
"Haha, no thanks." I sniffed. "I'm not a fan of picking up Casey's crap. Casey's a great dog but when she poos, she poos a _lot_."  
"Shut up, Ethan"

I laughed and ducked as Robyn slung a massive pile of dog turd my way. It splattered on the balcony. I peered over the railing. "You're going to have to scoop that back up, you know."

"Arghh! SHUT UP! The second we're back in school, I'm going to hex your mouth off!"  
"Speaking of school," I continued wryly, "did you get your supplies yet?" I need more quills. Oh! And have you convinced your parents to let you go on the field trip yet?"

"Oh," Robyn lauged, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, it was a little hard. My mom was like, '_Dragons? Acromantulas? Erklings? Erumpents? I don't know half of those but they sound dangerous!_' " she imitated. "But I convinced her...eventually. It's kind of what happens when your parents are both Muggles. Ooh, I need to get back to Solstice Alley to pick up some books. Which ones am I missing again?"

I picked up her letter from the table next to me.  
"Dear guardians of Robyn Mofoghanishion, your daughter will be attending her fourth year at Hildegarde, North America's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on September 1st, blah blah blah. You will require the following textbooks: A_n Anthology of Eighteenth Century Charms, Quintessence :A Quest._.." I read aloud.

"Hmm... you didn't sign up for Muggle Studies. Why not?"  
"Well..." Robyn began sarcastically. "I was kind of a Muggle before my first year."  
"Oh."  
"Yeah."  
"Anyhoo," I continued, embarrassed. "you should continue scooping the turd. I 'll watch and learn how you Muggles use you francy 'pooper scooper''. Feel free to start."

Robyn following words included phrases like: brain like an ogre, helpful as a Flobberworm and several other random phrases, that I'm sure that she invented.


	2. That WasThat Was My Battle Cry

**Hello to my sole reviewer. Only one review. How sad. I think I may cry...**

**Ok, I'm kidding about the crying bit. But still. One review. ONE. (On that same note, lotsa thanks to hpfreeak, even though you're an anonymous reviewer, you're the reason why we can post this, and I will now answer your question)**

**Yes, it is in two points of view. The reason: it's being written by two people. Ethan (that's actually a made-up name. He said it was akward to write about himself, so he made up Ethan in place of his real name, which I won't tell you because I don't know if he'll be okay with that) and I (Robyn. That's spelled with a '_Y_', not an _'I_'. Just making sure you know that) decided it would be fun to write a Harry Potter fanfic placed around Hildegarde, the North American "Hogwarts", that he discovered from a site called Hexrpg . com (without the spaces, duh). We are both HUGE Harry Potter freaks, and like to write, so we decided that if we didn't do this it would be a complete waste of talent and knowledge. The characters are really US, just with different last names (or in Ethan's case, first and last) and I don't really have an owl. I do have a big dog, though :D**

**Oh, and, what did you mean by '3 the story'?**

If there's anything I can say about Solstice Alley, it's that it's big. And confusing. I'm sure it can't be all that much different from the ever-so-famous Diagon Alley all the way in the UK, but still...

It's BIG.

Ethan was walking a short ways ahead of me, having gotten used to the place from when his parents brought him here when he was little. Lucky him. I, on the other hand, never knew that such a place like this existed. It fascinates me to no end, which has gotten me lost multiple times. Then again, what's life without getting lost a couple times? I just get lost more than most.

We walked into the bookstore, and I smiled, breathing in the familiar scent. I'm such a bookworm, before our first year really started, my tour guide, Professor Yarmie thought I'd gotten lost. It was a very possible theory, but I was really just reading. And reading. And...You get the point.

I resisted checking out the new releases to go find my textbooks. I'd come back to look at that later, when we had all of our things.

"What else do we need, Ethan?"

He looked down at our lists; he was holding both because he was super-uper nice...and I was wearing my brand new combat boots. (A/N: Sorry. I just really like combat boots...)

"I think we've got just about everything. Unless you want to buy some things for Periscope, which you sorta should, and I figure that Chaos could use some new things, too." He suggested, referring to my owl and his cat. Said owl was at home right now (in a high up place where Casey can't reach, which is a little hard because Casey's so big and Periscope's so small.), and his cat was...somewhere. Ethan is incredible at keeping track of it, but I have no idea how. It just appears, disappears, and tries to scare me (Ethan denies that bit, but when it pounces on you in the middle of the night when you're reading _A Series of Unfortunate Events_...!)

We headed to the pet shop, where I quickly bought some treats for Periscope and saw Ethan deciding on cat toys. I smiled, and saw a kneazle in the corner. I'd always been fascinated in the cat-like creatures, and I went to take a look. So far, this one wasn't friendly.

I sucked on my now-bleeding finger as I looked around for Ethan. He wasn't in the cat toy section, not in the aviation section, not at the front desk to pay, and, according to a witch that only had to swish her wand slightly, not in the store at all. I sighed. He probably thought I got lost again and went to look for me. Ironically, since I didn't know where he was, I had the feeling that that was going to get me lost for real. I walked out the door and looked around. No Ethan.

I smiled. I know I'm not supposed to enjoy getting lost, especially since Ethan always lectures me about wandering off on my own, especially after he has to go find me...but I love the thrill of finding a new place that I've never seen before, which is always possible in Solstice Alley, and, if Ethan didn't always insist on 'finding' me, I'm sure I could find my way back. I think.

I looked at my options. I'd taken every direction available for me before. Except...

I slipped into the alleyway, curious. Okay, so maybe this wasn't _the_ safest option available, but I was pretty sure that there were no axe-murderers (or Voldemort) down this alleyway. Besides, I wasn't even five feet tall, and wearing dark(ish) colours. I was unnoticeable as unnoticeable goes.

After a while, I began to notice that the buildings had no openings in between them. This made me slightly nervous, because if I did happen to run into an axe-murderer (or Voldemort), I wouldn't exactly have a place to go. I started to think about going back.

"Oi!"

In the split second after I heard the voice, I jumped about a foot in the air, whipped out my wand, turned around to face the person who had no right to scare a nervous midget, and I may or may not have screamed.

The person, clearly amused, was a tall young man with bright red hair, freckles, and...Only one ear?

"Sorry. I was wondering whether you were lost, but I think you answered my question with that scream." He said. A thick, English accent coated his words, and I grinned. I love accents. Any kind. Hey, who doesn't?

However, I then realized what he had said, and set my mouth in a straight line. "I did not scream. That...that was my battle cry." I said defiantly. Hey, I'll admit that I screamed to you, who's reading, but not him. Because I don't think that he can find a computer.

He walked up to me and stuck out a hand. "M'name's George Weasley." He said, "And you are?"

It didn't occur to me that he'd just asked me my name. All that found its way out of my mouth was, "aren't you supposed to be in Britain?"

**Y'like? **

**Oh, and IF ANYBODY READS THIS, I AM LITERALLY ON MY KNEES (even though you can't see it) BEGGING YOU TO REVIEW! I MEAN, COME ON, PEOPLE! I WANT MORE THAN ONE!**

**(not to sound like Malfoy in a fit or anything, sorry if I came across that way. It's just nice to have support.)**


	3. Which One's The Coffee Pot?

**...this took too long to put up. Sorry. Alex wrote it a long time ago, with the request that I just find an ending (I only wrote the last line...) and it's been sitting in my desk drawer until I finally kicked myself into typing it up. Don't blame Alex (did I mention that that's Ethan's real name? Sorry, I don't even know...) blame ol' Robyn. **

Honestly. Here I am, standing outside the pet emporium, looking completely ridiculous balancing catnip, a self-repairing scratching post (Robyn would be ecstatic, she's been moaning on about how her clothes were Chaos' self-appointed scratching post, but really, that was just one incident) in one hand and an assortment of multi-coloured inkwells in the other. I looked around impatiently. I told her to meet me outside! I shook my head, cursed, and stuffed my supplies and the scratching post (with difficulty, I might add) into my knapsack. I was pretty sure she wasn't in the pet store; I'd looked everywhere multiple times, so I sighed and made my way towards the bookstore down the road. Robyn probably went there to get a book because I was taking so long.

After pestering many assistants (and receiving plenty of dirty looks) I retreated back outside. Hm...They hadn't seen a 'really short teenage girl with glasses and an extremely heavy dark green book bag with a tendency to get herself lost and is occasionally tripping over things'. So where could she be?

This had happened many times so I wasn't really very bothered. I bought myself a chocolate frog before proceeding to ask more people.

At last, an old warlock in light blue dress robes mentioned that he _might_ have seen a girl with my description wandering into a side alley near the pet shop. "She was tripping over things, she was!" he guffawed, "tripped over a rock and nearly knocked her head against the wall!"

"Thanks!" I shouted, already hurrying towards the direction of said alleyway.

By the time I got there, I was hopelessly tired. Running uphill with a hundred (no joke!) pounds of school supplies does that to you. I stumbled into the closest alley and began walking cautiously. I could've sworn I saw Robyn ahead of me, but that person was definitely taller and ganglier. I squinted; the darkness wasn't helping. I considered doing magic but the underage restrictions were still in effect.

I think I must've taken a wrong turn, because next thing I knew, I heard a shriek. Robyn! I turned towards the direction of the scream and ran towards it. After many more wrong turns (I'm beginning to become as hopelessly geography-challenged as Robyn! But I was panicking, okay?) I saw Robyn with the same, tall lanky person from before.

"Robyn!" I freaked, leaning against the wall to recover, "I thought you were attacked by a hog or something! Why did you, ah, have to scream?" I panted.

Robyn's eyes narrowed. "I didn't scream," she began, "that was..." at this, she shook her head and seemed to give up. "Doesn't matter, anyway. George decided to sneak up on me and that's that. What took you so long?"

I flushed. "Well," I coughed defensively, "I-erm-got detained and-erm-a little misguided..." a babbled, trying to ignore Robyn's raised eyebrow. "Wait," I continued, trying to distract her, "George? George who?"

George reached out his hand. "George Weasley." He grinned, and my mouth dropped open. After an awkward silence, in which George withdrew his hand, I picked my jaw off the floor and muttered, "Nice to meet you too..."

There was yet another moment of silence until Robyn turned to George again. "You were talking about Wizard Weasels -aargh... Weasley's Wizard Wheeze's...there's a tongue twister if I ever heard one...opening in Solstice? Here?"

George nodded, clearly excited. "Our first store out of Europe! We've secured the premises and have everything set up and..." he added thoughtfully "now that I've already scared the two of you out of your socks, would you like a bit of a pre-grand opening tour, just the two of you?"

Robyn looked ready to squeal, something she often did when over-excited. She'd never done it in the presence of a stranger, though, so I had George to thank for the safety of my eardrums.

We quickly agreed, and George led us to his store fairly quickly, without getting lost. It looked extremely flashy compared to the other stores (Artemisia's Antiques and a rather forlorn old toad shop). I gaped up at the unlit purple sign before George ushered us in through the side door.

I ducked instantly as a high-pitched "Wheeeeeee" of delight sounded from above us. I had lots of practice dodging Chaos so I was just able to dodge a demented looking miniature mannequin.

"I see you've met Peeves the Second, our store mascot," George commented, illuminating the shop with flares of light from his wand, "Our newest merchandise consists of miniatures of him, Punky Poltergeist. Don't ask where I came up with the idea, it's a long story."

While I was able to dodge, Robyn wasn't so lucky. Her glasses were now lopsided, but she didn't seem to mind. "Amazing," she kept repeating, as she adjusted them, "that's _adorable_..."

There was a creak from a door labelled 'STAFF ONLY' in bold, yellow letters, and a bleary-eyed redhead stumbled through.

"George," he called, "which one's the coffee pot? I can't tell, and nobody's brave enough to try either one."

**We do not own Harry Potter. Don't make us make you write that out a dozen times with Umbridge's quill (hehehe). Next chapter (which I will hopefully get around to writing soon) will consist of us finally getting to Hildegarde! WOOT!**


	4. But you woke up, right?

**Hey, people! Welcome back to BRFTGW! This took forever, I know (Ironically, just after I got the email from Alex-if you've forgotten for whatever reason who he is, Alex is Ethan's alter-ego, so to speak-I recieved a review telling me to update. So, here's to "Someone Harharhar" for their epic timing!). **

** So to make up for the amount of time it took to write, I'd like to let you all know that this chapter is the longest chapter yet, with five pages on my word document, and 3009 words! !**

**Also, a warning: This chapter contains temporary character death, and...um, nothing else potentially scary, unless you count mentions of ghosts, I s'pose.**

I gaped. There was _another_ Weasley? How many of them were there? I looked towards Ethan. He looked curious, but excited. I had the feeling that he knew a lot more about the family than I did, growing up with a wizarding family himself. I vaguely remembered hearing the name before-something about the family helping in the big war-but whenever a Weasley was mentioned, they either talked about Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, or the guy with the scar in the middle of his forehead...I think his name is Harold or something. Harold Potter. I frowned...that didn't sound right...

We were introduced, after George told the other Weasley that neither of the pots was of coffee (apparently one was Butterbeer, and George got an evil look on his face when asked about the other). This one's name was Charlie. He shook each of our hands-Ethan didn't just stare dumbly at it this time-and told us to stay away from the chocolate that George was bound to give us.

"Hey!" said George, "you just spoiled my fun!"

"And if you do, for whatever reason, eat the chocolate," continued Charlie, "the side effects aren't permanent."

Ethan nodded, still looking like he was meeting a celebrity for the first time. I wondered what would happen if we did eat the chocolate.

Charlie turned back to his older-or was he younger?-brother. "Well, I'm off to that Reservation that I heard about. I'd like to see the dragons."

"Aw, all you do is work, work, work, Charlie. Take a break, for once! This was supposed to be a vacation, but if you're ungrateful..." George trailed off, looking sad and pitiful, but the effect was ruined by the smile threatening to break out.

"You seem to have forgotten that the main reason why we're even here is because you opened a store here. That's work, isn't it?"

George blinked, looking somewhat surprised. "This is work? I was under the impression that this was simply a very fun hobby that happens to make me money."

Charlie rolled his eyes, and disapparated-something which I hated that I couldn't do. Turning, and then reappearing in a completely different place? I mean, for somebody that grew up thinking that the best way to get somewhere was by car or airplane (again, I couldn't do either...and don't even ask about bicycles), and discovering that you could just _turn around_...!

I snapped out of my thoughts, just in time to see Ethan ducking out of the way of a fanged Frisbee. I then reached up and caught said Frisbee...you'd be surprised how fast my reflexes are when I'm not prepared for whatever it is that's about to hit me. Half the time, I'd catch it...the other half, I get hit by Peeves II.

Placing the Frisbee back on a random shelf, I turned to George. "Hey, can I have some of that chocolate?"

George blinked at me, surprised. "You still want some? After what Charlie told you?"

I grinned a familiar grin...and saw Ethan cringe. "Are you kidding me? That is exactly _why_ I wanna try."

George grinned back at me. He disappeared into a back room of sorts, and came back with a chocolate bar. He handed it to me, and I unwrapped it. Yum...

"Robyn, are you sure you want to eat that?" I looked up from my chocolate bar to see Ethan's worried face, and nodded.

"It's _chocolate_, Ethan, what's the worst that could happen?"

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, but it's _Weasley_ chocolate. They make things that make Chaos look tame."

"I resent that."

I scoffed. "Doubt it.", I said to Ethan, and without another word, I took a big chunk out of the chocolate with my teeth, chewed it, and swallowed.

...and then it all went black...

My head felt heavy, and my eyes certainly didn't want to open. It felt like my whole brain was a mass of fog; particularly near my forehead.

I hadn't finished eating the chocolate. That was the first thing that came to mind, before I remembered that the chocolate was most likely why my head felt funny. If I could grin (my mouth felt numb), I would. George Weasley was an awesome guy, to pull a prank like this.

I felt a warm hand on my neck, and by instinct, I slapped it away. Opening my eyes, I saw George and Ethan standing over me, George looking thrilled, and Ethan looking immensely relieved.

"How do you feel?" George's voice sounded like it was coming from a far away tunnel; however, I couldn't help but be reminded of how _cool _his accent was. I lifted myself onto my elbows; my head felt more like it was lifting into the sky at fifty miles per hour, with my stomach trailing behind it. I blinked, trying to clear away the spots that suddenly filled my vision.

I think I said something, but I'm not sure. If I did, I'm sure it wasn't anything coherent.

George and Ethan looked at each other. I don't think Ethan was too happy, but I wasn't focussing on that, because I was distracted by a ringing sound in my ears, not to mention that my elbows weren't going to support me for very long. I slowly laid my head down on the floor again.

I stayed like that until I could focus on things again, and the pain in my head had turned into a small headache. As I did, I noticed that I wasn't in the bright, warm, organized chaos of the room that I'd passed out in. Instead I saw a white ceiling, walls that were a soothing shade of green, and kitchen appliances. I turned my head, and saw that the floor was tiled black and white, like a checkerboard. I also noticed how cold it was...

I looked back to George and Ethan. Ethan was just standing there, looking awkwardly uncomfortable, and George had his entire upper body inside of a kitchen drawer.

Cool.

George resurfaced from the drawer, and walked over to me, carrying a little vial of a pale yellow liquid."Here," he said, handing it to me, "this will make the headache go away."

I took it from him, and examined it. Shrugging, I took the cork out, and hesitantly took a sip. It tasted how I'd imagined the sky to taste; not quite there, but still had substance anyway. As soon as it hit my throat, the slight pain in my forehead disappeared as if it had disapparated.

They helped me up, and George explained what the chocolate was.

"Death by Chocolate", he told me, "mimics the effects of being dead, well, except for the whole never wake up part. Be careful how you use it, though, or the ministry will be after my tail for killing off dozens upon dozens of people, and then they'll be after me again for having an army of inferi."

Ethan and I exchanged glances. "In...What?" he asked.

"Dead bodies repossessed so that they walk around, blah de blah blah blah..."

"Like zombies!" I asked.

"Yeah, whatever you muggles call it."

I blinked. That meant that there had already been a zombie invasions; maybe more than one! And I hadn't been there with a crowbar, and possibly a flamethrower!

"Anyway," said George, "I should probably open up the store, we're running late for the Grand Opening, and my prat of a brother will probably come downstairs right about-"

"George!" A door was opened, and a new redhead walked in. He closed the door behind him, that lead to a staircase, and walked up to us...well, George. He barely glanced at Ethan and me.

"The crowd's getting restless! Come on, George, what are you waiting for?"

"Gee, Ron, I thought that, considering who you're married to especially, you'd care more for a girl that just had a heart attack!"

"I knew she'd wake up."

George couldn't come up with an argument for that. Eventually, since Ethan and I wanted to avoid crowds, George gave me a couple of Death by Chocolate bars for free (he also gave me another potion so that my heartbeat was brought up, and my temperature went back to normal), and we left.

The next few days passed by slowly. I couldn't help but feel bad for my muggle friends (who assumed I went to a private boarding school that I'd randomly gotten a scholarship for...gullible, eh?) for not having such an awesome school to look forward to.

At last, the day came when my mom drove me to an old warehouse. We weren't the only ones; all the Hildegarde students that lived in the area, like Ethan, came here. Those who lived in other regions went to different places (I've heard that they disguised one meeting place as a comic con-a lot of students used that as an excuse to show up already in their school robes), but they all ended up at the Log Cabin up near Hildegarde. It was a meeting place before we were all transported by bobsled to the castle itself.

The old warehouse was just as I remembered it, except maybe a little more graffiti'd. I could see other students-some classmates, some were older, others were younger, and others were obviously used to living in a wizarding village, the way they dressed-filling in through the worn, brown double doors. I smiled at the thought of how weird this would look to the neighbouring houses and stores. My dad told me that one year after he'd driven me, the guy at the corner store up the street asked why it was only twice a year that the warehouse (that didn't have a specified purpose) that people would come to this place, and then only half of them would come out again. My dad had explained (read: _lied_) that there was a back exit that half the people would use.

I walked inside, which looked a lot better than its graffiti'd cover, trust me. It was a large, spacious room, with dark wood floors, tall white walls, and a green-ish tinge to it. The green-ish tinge came from the large fireplaces that filled a whole wall, dyed permanently green by all the floo powder used whenever it was lit when students used it to come in to and from Hildegarde. I said goodbye to my mom, told her to keep guard of my room (with an older and a younger brother, you can never be too careful), and watched her leave, before looking around for a familiar face.

I found Ethan near the opposite wall, holding Chaos and waving me over. I gathered up Periscope's cage into my arms, keeping in mind that he _was _holding Chaos, I'd better be careful for both my owl and myself.

"Hey, Ethan." I said, keeping one eye on the Turkish van cat in his arms.

"Hey, Robyn." he said, "You know, Chaos isn't going to hurt you." So he noticed my stare.

I sighed. "Tell that to my favourite hat." I muttered darkly.

He rolled his eyes. "Robyn, it's a hat. It won't listen. Besides, you've got dozens of hats. What's one less going to do to you?"

"It was my _favourite_!" I whined. I didn't really mean it, but I was just trying to annoy Ethan a little as we walked towards the fireplace, our suitcases rolling behind us.

Ethan and I joined the line waiting to enter the fireplace. I couldn't help but wonder if this was how the legend of Santa Clause coming down the chimney was born...who knows, maybe, a long, long time ago, there was a guy who used floo powder to give out presents to those who needed it. Must've been a really nice guy...

Valerie Shade, who was right in front of Ethan, stepped into the fireplace, calling out "The Log Cabin!", and vanished.

Ethan gathered up Chaos in his arms, and pulled his suitcase behind him into the fire. He waved at me, and then called out "The Log Cabin!"

I walked into the now empty fireplace. I've always found this strange; having loved fire all my life (but maybe not as much as my older brother), I found it fascinating that I could walk through it and not get hurt, but I also knew the dangers of fire. I'd grown up knowing fire hurts-just because its green doesn't make it any less stupid to walk right into the middle of it.

I quickly tucked my glasses into my pocket, tightened my grip on Periscope's cage and my suitcase, and shouted, "The Log Cabin!"

I started to spin. I grinned like a maniac; I always felt like I was going through one of those tubes in those old sci-fi stories. The tubes that transport you from place to place...yeah, those things. When I told this to Ethan for the first time, I had to go into a very long explanation of science fiction, and what those tubes had to do with it.

I stopped abruptly. I stepped out of the fireplace, into the familiar cabin. The walls were made of (I hope you've already guessed this) logs, the floor was a threadbare carpet that who knew how many feet had walked over, and the portraits-that I couldn't see because there were too many people in the way-were of all the previously graduated students. There were many a large picture frame, with no specified person in each one; they all flitted from picture to picture too much. Once, in the beginning of my second year, I'd gotten to talk to one of them. They told me that originally, they were supposed to stick to the one portrait. I smirked at the thought- right after they'd said that, they'd ran to join a picture party on the opposite side of the room.

"Boo." I calmly turned around to see Ethan standing behind me, attempting to scare me.

"Nice try, Eth." I said.

"Aww, but George scared you!"

"Hey, I was in a dark alleyway, 'kay?" I paused. "Wait, no, I didn't mean that. I meant that _that_ was my battle cry. I could've hexed his butt off, thank you very much."

"Uh huh..." he grinned, and I scowled.

I turned around, towards the doorway, where students were already filing through. "Alright, let's go get a sled before they're all full." I said.

Ethan and I found a sled. True to the cold North American stereotype, the way we got from the Log Cabin into school grounds was by sleds...pulled by arctic foxes. Glad I'd gotten new boots, I hugged my jacket closer as I stepped in and sat down next to Ethan, shaking the snow off my boots as I did so. We were joined by Valerie Shade, an African American girl a little on the short side, but with a build like a firefighter, and then Mike Bobbelle, a scrawny kid with reddish brown hair, freckles, and the biggest glasses you've ever seen. Looking between them, I couldn't help but think that we'd been joined by the two most opposite people ever.

The bench behind us was filled with people I didn't recognize (actually, I think that the one in the middle stumbled into my class by mistake when he was trying to find the potions room...but that's irrelevant) and the arctic foxes, as if by cue, started yipping as they began to run.

Ethan, Valerie, Mike and I talked about random things from pet peeves, to Peeves II, to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, to death by chocolate...

"So you, like, died?"

"For a moment, yeah. Ethan was terrified."

"Was not. I was just worried."

"But you woke up, right?"

"Mike, if she didn't wake up, she wouldn't be sitting here."

"Riiight..."

"Good, cuz I wouldn't want to have to deal with your ghost if you did die." For the strangest reason, Valerie had a problem with ghosts. She didn't like them, thought they were evil, and went out of her way to avoid them at Hildegarde. She was remarkably good at it, considering the fact that they could walk through walls.

"If I died, Val, I'd make sure to bug you for half an hour about how not all ghosts are evil, before going to do...uh, ghost stuff."

"Hey, look, there's the castle!" one girl from the bench behind us yelled, loud enough to turn heads from sleds nearby-ironically, the heads were turned away from the castle and towards the girl, who blushed and slunk down into her seat. I could understand her excitement. She looked to be about twelve, or in other words, only in her second year at Hildegarde. She'd never reached the castle by sled before.

I looked back towards the front, and sure enough, there was the castle. It was a grand building made of such a peculiar white stone that it practically glowed, standing out from its snowy background.

The sleds stopped right at the gates of the school grounds, and we all filed in, walking up to the large brown double doors that contrasted nicely with the rest of the white building.

"D'you think that Professor Yarmie's still teaching?" I asked Ethan. He'd hinted a little last year that he might be off to another school.

"I hope so," he said, grinning.

We made it to the doorway. I checked my ring...err, watch...err...ring that told time. Usually, the doors were opened just as the first student made it. The more competitive students always turned that into a contest.

We all had different ways of keeping warm, and we did so, hoping that the doors would open soon. Why weren't they opened already?

There was a loud banging sound, and slowly, the doors opened to reveal the beautiful (and warm) entrance hall, and a person standing in front of it, breathing heavily...

** Heh heh. I suppose you'd call that a cliffhanger, eh? I don't know how exciting it's gonna be (it's a cliffy for me, too, cuz it's Alex's turn to write the chapter!) but I'm sure it'll be just as exciting.**

** Oh, and he also told me that he'd match my word count on the next chapter so it'll be just as long...I wonder if it's gonna be a competition...**

**So if you don't like long chapters...well...deal with it!**

**And I've never addressed this topic before, but I'm in debate club, so if you flame me, I will get out my equivalent of a fire extinguisher and destroy it. If you flame anonymously-cowardly move by the way-I will post your flame in the next chapter and abolish it there. So ha. (BTW, I've never been flamed, but I figured it's good to be prepared just in case.)**


	5. Don't Hex My Cat!

**Hello, my humble audience. Seriously. There's hardly any of you out there. But those who are (REVIEWWWWWWWWW) I thank you for coming :D**

**Well, here's the chapter y'all have been waiting for!**

**Not much to say (mostly cuz I'm multitasking, I'm on the phone, talking to my cousin...I'm sure she'd say hi if I asked her but we're talking bout a story SHE wants to write so...that'd be an awkward change of subject :P) **

Waiting in front of Hildegarde is like waiting for the Knifflers to come onstage. There's always that buzz of anticipation. I frowned and edged forwards. The doors didn't usually take this long to open.

I could tell people were growing restless. A group of kind ghosts were trying to entertain us with jokes, causing Valerie to inch away and glare at them, but I stopped listening after the one with the banshee, Auror and the blind Seer. Chaos was getting fidgety and kept stretching towards Periscope, who was perched on Robyn's shoulder after he threw a fuss in the cage. I held on tighter to Chaos before Robyn could notice; she would be going on about it for days.

Finally, there was an ominous creak and doors flew open, and a figure hurried forward. It was Professor Ford, our headmistress, who was looking hassled.

"Sorry!" she called over the noise of the crowd, "the first years got lost midway through the sorting." A laugh ran through the crowd and Professor Ford had to resist doing the same as she let us in. "Drop off your suitcases in your common rooms!"

"See you later," called Robyn, waving, as Valerie and I headed upstairs to the Acripto common room. There were three houses in Hildegarde: Acripto, Maraglo and Calombro. Students are sorted randomly, so there is no real rivalry between the houses. Robyn belonged to Maraglo.

Dragging my suitcase up the grand staircase and turning a right, I approached the oak door, barely visible underneath the growth of Ivy growing on top of it. I took out my wand and tapped the door; whispering, 'Flammadea,' and the ivy recoiled to let Valerie and me through to drop off our luggage at our dorms, before leaving for the Dining Hall.

The Dining Hall was packed and Valerie and I only had time to wave at Robyn and Mike, who were at the far end of the Maraglo table before rushing off to find a seat. Dinner passed quickly, and the time tables were handed out afterwards. I grinned as I watched Robyn spill orange juice all over hers; she noticed and stuck her tongue out at me.

"Muggle studies first block?" Valerie exclaimed, looking over at my timetable, "Awesome! We'll have it together!"

I frowned. I still didn't understand the whole 'eckelectricity' (or was it 'eckeletrety'? Whatever.)

"Robyn'll help us." I laughed, shrugging off a sense of unease at that particular subject. "It'll be as easy as tying your shoes"

**!**

I stared at the diagram of the telephone, completely lost. Then I looked at the telephone in my hand. I looked at Valerie, who was on the other side of the room. She caught my eye and shrugged, bemused as everyone else.

"It's not that hard, now!" Professor Hobbes called above the din, "Punch in your partners respective numbers and talk into the mouthpiece!"

Huh. Easier said than done. I glanced at Valerie again. She seemed to have punched in my number...I flinched as a loud, shrill sound rang from my telephone. I shakily pressed the 'talk' button and pressed my ear to the phone.

Valerie was looking at me frantically and I didn't have to hear her to understand what she was saying. '_Can...You...hear...me?_'

I shook my head. '_No_,' I mouthed back.

Someone tapped me on my shoulder. I turned; it was Professor Hobbes.

"You're holding it upside down."

"Oh"

**!**

Ok, so Muggle Studies was a little harder than I thought. I didn't think that the telephone practical lesson went that bad but Professor Hobbes seemed to think otherwise.

"An essay on the role of the telephone in the average Muggle's lifestyle!" Valerie fumed, storming down the stairs, "This is tyranny!"

I kept a patient demeanour. Valerie had a fiery temper, but if anything distracted her, she'd never take it out on them.

"Oh hi Robyn, hey Mike!" I called. Valerie blinked, as we saw the two walking into the courtyard.

"Hello," Mike greeted us, "How was Muggle Studies?"

Oh great, so much for the distraction. We let Valerie seethe over the unfairness of the world, and then asked Robyn how her transfiguration class went.

"It _would've_ been fine," she began dramatically, and then did her famous 'Robyn Super Death Glare' (Mike nicknamed this. I have yet to find something wrong with this name because it pretty much sums it up) "...if it wasn't for _your cat_."

"My cat?" I asked blankly.

"Yes, Chaos." Robyn glared, "Do you want to hear the full story?"

"Umm..."

"Too bad, you're gonna hear it anyway." She began, walking briskly, and I followed, Mike and Valerie trailing behind. "I forgot my transfiguration book in my dormitory, so I had to run up and get it. _Unfortunately_, on my way back I met Chaos."

I tried to look politely interested, but I was still confused.

"So," Robyn continued, now heading toward the Western Viaduct, "Obviously, I stopped and told him to go away. But he followed and I was too busy watching him to notice that I dropped the chocolates George gave me.

"By the time I saw them, Chaos had picked them up with his grubby little mouth and ran off! I followed him, and when he turned the corner, Nick Chedling was right. There."

"Nick Chedling?" I interjected incredulously, "he would trade a Firebolt for chocolate frogs!"

Robyn stopped and gave another 'Robyn Super Death Glare'. "So." She continued, "Chaos saw Chedling, dropped the chocolate, and disappeared in pure Chaos fashion. Chedling saw the chocolate, picked it up, ate it...and you know how they weren't normal chocolates..."

"What happened?" I asked in a hushed voice.

"Professor Anar walked in and saw me, looking incredibly mad, and Chedling on the floor, looking...well, dead. What do you think happened?" She rolled her eyes, "I'm headed to detention right now," she concluded with a groan. "Scraping Droubles off the ceiling! That stupid cat!"

She kept ranting for a couple minutes, and was about to call Professor Anar a rude name...but I can't quite say which one because, at that precise moment Professor Anar herself was right in front of us and Robyn shut up immediately.

"Robyn." She snapped, her black eyes matching perfectly with her course raven hair, "I forgot to mention-no magic."

"But-!" Robyn spluttered, eyes widening.

"No buts! You have committed a serious offense! Chedling needed a calming draught before he could return to class! And on the very first day, too! I ought to take points off Maraglo!"

"That you haven't already taken off," breathed Valerie darkly.

"Excuse me, Mr Bobbelle!" said Professor Anar, obviously confusing Mike for the one who had spoken.

"Nothing!" he squeaked.

"It had better have been nothing!" Professor Anar snarled, "If I see you-any one of you," she glared at all of us, "out of line, I will dutifully remove you from the reservation field trip. Goodness knows what you'll do to the animals!" With that, she strode off, thankfully oblivious to Valerie's crude imitations of her behind her back.

It took some time to calm Robyn down. Plus it didn't help that Chaos decided to lounge at the foot of the ladder Robyn had to use.

"That cat had better be gone by the time I get there," she growled, storming towards the cat and ladder, looking murderous.

"Don't hex my cat!" I called. Robyn turned to fix me with one of the darkest glares ever; she didn't look above doing that right now.

**Now review. This is what Alex said: "Tra la la...you were expecting more...?**

**WELL, YOU'RE WRONG!**

**:D MWAHAHAHA"**


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